• Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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    7 days ago

    TL;DW it’s similar to what I was saying above- the deer in Yellowstone were eating all the grass because there were no wolves. They reintroduced the wolves and the deer started avoiding areas where the wolves were most likely to catch them. Much like the negative cascading effect I was talking about in Indiana, this had a positive cascading effect which greatly increased the biodiversity of the entire region and even had effect on rivers due to less soil erosion.

    • JovialMicrobial@lemm.ee
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      7 days ago

      New England has so many freaking deer because of the complete lack of natural predators. The native mountain lion species here went extinct a long time ago, and nothing has taken its place.

      It’s literally just hunters and cars hitting them keeping the population in check.

      Plus there’s that deer wasting disease that’s been spreading, and continued overpopulation is just gonna make it worse.

      Keeping predators in an eco system is so fucking important.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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        7 days ago

        I don’t think it’s this bad right now, but I remember about 10 years ago a hunter telling me about the starving deer he was bagging because of a population explosion.